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Basic Strategy Guide
Welcome, newcomers! This is the basic strategy guide for those who've played for the first time and are looking to improve as well as those who have always been interested, but are afraid of the seemingly steep learning curve of the game. A word of advice: You should never play the veteran friendly roles (The Messiah and Prime Evils) until at LEAST 5 games (even this is not ideal) to understand how the game works. Even one new person playing one of these roles has ruined countless games because of how essential all of these positions are. You should normally have a very experienced Heaven or Hell that can help cover for your weakness if you're playing any of the veteran positions for the first time. However, that does not mean you should be afraid to play these roles. After all, everyone has their first time, so do not be deterred if you get yelled or raged at, it is just a game. As long as you have at least a few games under your belt, I'd say go for it if you're interested. The Basics of the Basics (First 5 Games) So, you were lucky enough to stumble upon this wikia, perhaps after being overwhelmed at the first few games or just being guided here by someone interested in a tutorial. We will give a very very basic idea of what to do for you to quickly get going. Firstly, if you are a beginner, I would highly recommend to avoid playing important roles, as a new player on veteran roles will ruin the game. Below I have a list of heroes that are from easiest to hardest. Beginner Recommended Zadkiel /Moloch -''' Zadkiel and Moloch are single hero units that both respawn upon death, with Moloch a bit harder to pick up 'Seraphiel -' Straightforward army with SUPPORT heroes, Nathaniel especially should not be alone as he is very fragile '''Not Ideal, but is still possible for beginners Michael /Uriel -''' Core defensive heroes of heaven, they are also very straightforward and easy to pick up but VERY important roles, so it is usually not recommended for beginners to choose them, but it is usually alright if they can pick up how to play them quickly. '''Highly Recommended that Beginners do NOT play this role Jehoel -''' This is the point where beginners should NOT be taking roles in. Jehoel is a hero with an army like Sera, Michael and Uriel, but is uniquely designed to be an offensive/harassing hero that is essential to holding back the tides of evil. 'Do NOT Do NOT do NOT Choose These EVER if You are Brand New ' Messiah & Prime Evils (Astaroth , Asmodeus , and Satan ) - These roles are extremely critical to the game. Even one new person claiming any of these roles would easily unbalance and most likely ruin the game. Beginners should '''under no circumstance try to play these roles. A minimum of 5 games is required to generally understand the game to the point where playing a prime evil is even thinkable. Basic Mechanics #'HEROES - USE 'EM BUT DONT LOSE 'EM -' this is basically the first thing that people should be realizing when playing. The heroes are the essential, core units the game revolve around - everything else are essentially support roles for the hero. You can instantly heal heroes in designated areas every 30 seconds (will add picture showing hero heals for evils and heaven later). Most new players either never use them, or lose them extremely quickly. You should be doing neither - use them, but don't lose them. #'Try to Preserve Elite Units '- keeping your elite units alive is usually more difficult and not as important as keeping your hero alive. However, as a beginner, try your best to keep your elites alive as long as possible, as they provide crucial support firepower/defense for your hero. Being able to preserve your elite units is usually the difference between an average and a good player. #'This is the most important: LISTEN TO YOUR TEAMMATES!' - Most players that you would be playing with are people who have played this game extensively and know a LOT. Many of us are very welcoming to newcomers because we want more people playing this game, provided that they are able to listen to their teammates. If asked, most experienced players would also be more than happy to provide tips. If someone asks you to do something, it usually is something that is beneficial for the team, so please try to listen to what they are asking if you can. Teamwork is essential to this game. Inversely, don't be afraid to ask for help on your side, your teammates will probably be more than willing to help, as the failure of just one player can bring down the entire team. Alright, and that's it! These are the basics that should help you for your first few games. If you are interested in learning the more specific nuances of this game (which are also very very important), check out the Basic Mechanics and Strategies section of this article. Otherwise, have fun! Basic Mechanics of Heaven You could say that this, along with the Strategies section of this article is the more advanced tutorial/strategy guide for this game, as Heaven SHOULD be the side that you start out with for quite a while, ideally. Continue on if you're interested in the path from a beginner to a decent player. Tanking with Heroes ("Use your heroes") At the most basic level, Heaven's forces should always try to have their heroes tank the lesser minion's attacks. Why is this a good idea? *Your heroes have much higher stats than your elites or lesser angels, making them last much longer in tanking the lesser demons' attacks *The hero heals are closer, with heroes instantly regaining full health and energy (the angels' heals are much farther and only heal a few units slowly over time) Because your heroes are much tougher and can heal instantly (every 30 seconds), they last against lesser demons indefinitely in the hands of the right player through quick runs to the heals and back. Since the lesser angels and elites can be lost much more quickly and are much harder to heal, they are usualy positioned behind the heroes, providing cover fire and assist holding back the forces of Hell without being exposed to their attacks. Preserving Heroes and Elites ("Never lose your heroes") This seems rather perplexing at first due to the fact that we seem to leave them vulnerable in the first place. The idea behind all of heaven's forces is to maximize the usage/efficiency ''of the heroes but making sure not to lose them. Losing a hero is in many cases is just as or more devastating tha losing all your elites, as you will no longer have an efficient tank with amazing dps capabilities for wave clearing and warding off enemy heroes. Your heroes and elite angels are the essential heart of your defense - the idea is that the longer you keep and utilize them, the more efficient they are in defending against evil's hordes. After all, the longer your units stay alive, the more units they kill, the more they defend, right? Although most people would quickly understand to heal their heroes, many people do not utilize the lesser heals at the top of the map. Many experienced players would retreat only a few of their low health elite units to the lesser heal at a time, rotating the units that are being healed and are defending/harassing. After all, if you just send your whole army to the heal, who's gonna defend your location? You will lose a LOT of ground, fast! Basic Mechanics of Hell Heroes: Again, Use 'Em But Don't Lose 'Em! The idea behind using them however, are different from Heaven. Unlike Heaven's primarily using their Heroes to ideally tank most of Hell's damage (to keep the elites/lesser angels alive), Hell should use the expendable lesser demons (that come out of the nydus worms) tank heaven's damage while hell's heroes dish out most of the damage against Heaven's forces. Unlike most positions on Heaven, the Prime Evils require more than simple good mechanics, they need to understand the specific mechanics of how to push against heaven. Overview of the Evil's Pushing Mechanics *Astaroth - Astaroth primarily uses his Astaroth Deathball (Astaroth and his flayed, Abaddon, and Berith), to slowly wittle down Heaven's forces, with Astaroth's sneaky poison and Abaddon's AoE (area of effect) storm punishing those within their range. Berith is great at sniping buildings and heroes when using Abaddon's Fungal Growth (a stun spell) *Asmodeus - Asmodeus primarily uses his tanks to dish out sieged damage from a long distance. As such, they must be protected, as they are the most efficient method in dealing damage over time. Sammyazza's Infernal Siege spell significantly increases the range of these tanks to deal damage from a safe distance, so keeping him alive for this spell is necessary to push effectively. *Satan - Satan mostly relies on the synergy between Beelzebub's Dark Swarm with Mammon and his Behemoths (ultra elites) to push back the forces of Heaven. It is CRUCIAL to always have Mammon and his Behemoths always under the red cloud of Dark Swarm when under heavy fire, as they melt almost instantly from the extremely high ranged damage output of Heaven's forces. Satan players should especially be careful of the dark templar hero Zadkiel, whose permanent cloak can quietly take out the Dark Swarm eggs, and predators, invisible elite units that can easily trap and kill Mammon. The only mobile detection Hell has to detect these are through their grigories (overseers). '''Many heroes on hell are crucial in order for Hell's forces to be able to push effectively. '''We'll provide a list of how each Prime Evil slowly pushes Heaven to illustrate some of these heroes' importance: Beelzebub - Beelzebub is the most significant hero in Hell due to his spell, Dark Swarm, which temporarily makes the ranged damage of Heaven's forces ineffective against Heaven's forces under the cloud. WIthout his Dark Swarm, Satan's pushing power goes almost effectively to zero against well fortified positions, as the high damage melee units of Satan become extremely vulnerable to heaven's high dps ranged fire. Abaddon - Abaddon is the bread and butter of Astaroth's forces, as her razor swarm (psionic storm) provide a large area of effect damage against lesser angels as well as a humongous threat to heroes with her fungal growth (a stun spell). Sammyazza - Sammyazza is what provides Asmodeus' tanks the extra range to deal damage at a safe distance through his Infernal Siege spell. Without him, Asmodeus' most effective way of pushing (with the tanks) is crippled. It is very interesting to note that none of these heroes are the actual Prime Evils of Hell. These heroes are the most important ones, given that they give hell the effective way to push against Heaven's forces. SPREAD CREEP WITH GRIGORI (Overseers)! Creep spread is probably the first easy mechanic that every hell player MUST do. Especially for beginner players, there are very few instances where it is a good idea to try to fight heaven with your heroes off creep! Use Grigori to spread creep. Each prime evil has in their possession three overseers (Grigori) that are extremely valuable. They do not respawn unless a prime evil loses all of their Grigori, in which one is given instead of a round of your elite reinforcements. Grigories perform three essential functions: #'Creep Spread''' - Each grigori has the ability to create creep tumors (called Spawn of Darkness). Creep spread is extremely important and its importance will be explained in WHY CREEP SPREAD IS IMPORTANT section. #'Mobile Detection' - Grigoris are unique in being the only units able to permanently provide detection. #'High Ground Vision' - Throughout the game, there will be areas where Heaven will have defenses in the high ground that is unreachable, either through heavy forces defending a choke point or being inaccessible. In these cases, most units will be unable to attack because units in high ground are not visible to units in lower ground. Grigori can be used to provide high ground vision. It should be noted that Abbadon, Satan and Asmodeus all provide high ground vision as well. You should also note that lone Grigori providing high ground are vulnerable. Make sure not to lose them. It should be noted that you should most certainly not lose these units, especially because they do NOT come back (unless you lose all of them, in which you gain only one). WHY CREEP SPREAD IS IMPORTANT When the Grigori make creep tumors (spawn of darkness), they spread the zerg creep found on regular Starcraft. This creep is essential when pushing against heaven, as they provide many critical purposes: * A significant speed buff to all of hell's units on creep (including heroes, elites, and the mass of lesser demons (simply called "mass") * An attack speed buff to mass * Vision for all of hell's players on heaven's units that step on creep Attacking with hell's heroes and elites off creep is highly dangerous, as slower speed WILL make them very vulnerable to potential snipes from predators, Jehoel's and Seraphiel's armies, etc. Likewise, it is also dangerous for heaven to also tread to far into creep, as the vision and buffs that creep provides allow very good opportunities for hell to flank and surround trespassers. Because creep is so essential to hell pushing, you can think of it as hell's domain, or territory they control. It is thus very important to try to hold back the spread of creep as best as you can, either through your heroes or units. However, you must always be careful to avoid losing too many elites or even your heroes attempting to clear creep. Sniping grigories is a great way to slow down the flow of creep, as they are the only units that can create the creep tumors. Basic Strategies of Heaven Once you get hang of the basic gameplay mechanics, you should understand common strategies and tactics used against Hell. Jehoel/Metatron Pain Train - The Jehoel Metatron Pain Train is the group consisting of Jehoel, Metatron, and all the Seraphs (optionally the zealots) together. This group is uniquely equipped to be aggressive/on the offensive against hell's forces thanks to Metatron's shockwave ability. Shockwave pushes all enemy units in a certain radius from Metatron, becoming stunned for a short duration. This ability is the only stun heaven has in the game, making it a great tool to both attempt sniping heroes/elites and running away safely when getting flanked or surrounded. Marauders on Raphael (Medivac) '''- Although these are already provided in Heaven Besieged 2.0, in classic or version 1.98, many veteran Michael (teal) players request Seraphiel (purple) to give 4 marauders. These marauders become very effective at warding off Astaroth's deathball, as any of Raphael's attacks will slow their target, which helps tremendously in sniping important heroes like Astaroth, Abaddon, and Berith. '''Messiah (Battlecruiser) Yamatoing Asmodeus' Tanks - When properly set up and defended, Asmodeus tanks are practically invulnerable (even to Seraphiel's snipe), only able to be attacked if heaven risks (and most likely losing) a significant portion of their forces. As the Messiah's Yamato range is extremely high, using Sandalphon for vision (who is excellent at tanking tank shots provided its shields are up), can damage the cannons from afar, slowly wittling them away. Trapping Mammon with Predators - The Messiah's army actually has very few melee tools to deal with Satan's Dark Swarm and melee ultralisk hero Mammon. His best tool is to use predators. (more details soon) Killing God? Can God Really Be Killed? Yes. Unlike the classic Starcraft 1 UMS Heaven's Last Stand/Final Hour/etc. in which God was a practically unkillable carrier that ends the game, the God in Heaven Besieged can be killed, and isn't even particularly difficult under certain circumstances. It is particularly important to note that God can be kited by Asmodeus, which is easy as his range is much higher than God's with Sammyazza's helping with infernal siege.